LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com/AP) — The parents of “Star Trek” actor Anton Yelchin filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday against the makers of Jeep Grand Cherokees, claiming the company manufactured unsafe gear selectors that led to their 27-year-old son being crushed in his own driveway.

The actor’s 2015 Cherokee rolled backward down a driveway of his home on June 19, pinning him between a mailbox and a security fence.

The suit contends the defective gear selector was poorly designed and manufactured.

“Anton Yelchin was crushed and lingered alive for some time, trapped and suffocating until his death,” the lawsuit states.

Victor and Irina Yelchin filed the wrongful death and product liability lawsuit in Los Angeles.

Yelchin was born March 11, 1989, in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation).[5][6] His parents, Irina Korina and Viktor Yelchin, were pair figure skaters who were celebrities as stars of the Leningrad Ice Ballet for 15 years.[7][8] His family is Jewish; in the USSR, they were subjected to religious and political oppression.[7][9][10] Yelchin had said: "My grandparents suffered in ways I can’t even begin to understand under Stalin."[10] Nationally, Yelchin's parents were the third-ranked pair team; they thus qualified for the 1972 Winter Olympics, but were not permitted to participate by the Soviet authorities.[7][8] (Yelchin had said the reason was unclear: "I don't exactly know what that was – because they were Jewish or because the KGB didn't want them to travel".)[11]